Monday, January 11, 2016

IT News Head Lines (TechSpot) 12/01/2016

Google Pixel C Review: Is Android M ready for productivity?
The
Pixel C is the first tablet to be fully developed in-house by Google.
Not unlike the Chromebook Pixel that runs Chrome OS, with the Pixel line
Google means to show off what's possible to build using their software
platforms even if it's inpractical for most to buy.

Weekend tech reading: Core i7-6700K OCed to 7GHz, Google's plans for 2016, Tesla adds summon feature
Der8auer
along with Dancop, both German overclockers achieved the fastest CPU
frequency on a Skylake motherboard using a Maximus VIII Gene. They
reached 7007.85 MHz for CPU frequency! To be able to reach this
frequency...

Sprint becomes last major carrier to eliminate two-year smartphone contracts
Late
last year, AT&T confirmed it would be eliminating two-year
service agreements in the New Year. The nation's second largest wireless
provider made good on that promise Friday in the midst of CES, leaving
fourth-place Sprint as the only major carrier still pushing subsidized
smartphones.

'Half-Life' writer Marc Laidlaw retires from Valve after 18 years
It's
likely to be a somber day for Half-Life 3 hopefuls as news circulates
that Marc Laidlaw, the man responsible for writing Half-Life and
Half-Life 2, has retired from Valve after 18 years on the job.

Apple acquires Emotient, a company that uses AI and facial recognition to identify emotions
Apple
has made its first acquisition of 2016, and it's another company
specializing in artificial intelligence. The Cupertino-based firm has
bought San Deigo startup Emotient Inc. for an undisclosed sum, according
to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

U.S. Marshals raid hoverboard booth at CES
One
of the great things about CES is that you're almost guaranteed to
witness something you hadn't bargained for. Such was the case on
Thursday when U.S. Marshals raided a booth exhibiting a discount
electric "hoverboard."

SteelSeries reveals the Rival 700, the first-ever gaming mouse with an OLED display
You’ll
find OLEDs on a variety of products these days, but you wouldn’t expect
to find one on gaming mouse – until now. At CES, SteelSeries announced
the Rival 700 – the first-ever gaming mouse to feature a fully
customizable onboard OLED display.

This forked version of Android plays nice with x86 hardware (and it's free)
The
idea of using Android in a traditional desktop sense isn't new. I
reviewed Acer's TA272 HUL back in April 2014, an all-in-one desktop
running Android (that also doubled as a standard monitor for any PC).
The idea wasn't a bad one but the implementation needed a lot of work.
...

Coalition of US tech giants submits concerns over UK's Investigatory Powers Bill
It’s
not often that Silicon Valley rivals join forces for something, but
tech companies tend to stand together when it comes to governments using
their products to spy on its citizens. And there are few proposals more
intrusive than those found in the UK’s draft Investigatory Powers Bill,
which has...

AMD's Radeon Software 16.1 Hotfix driver fixes tons of bugs
AMD's
first graphics card driver of 2016 is here, the Radeon Software Crimson
Edition 16.1 Hotfix driver, and it brings with it a ton of bug fixes
for a collection of the latest games.

Reddit will sell you a book of its favorite AMAs for $35
In
the market for some new bathroom reading material or for some reason
prefer to pay for content that's free (and legal) via the Internet? If
so, Reddit has a book just for you.

Alienware reveals money-saving Oculus bundle and world's first OLED gaming laptop
Now
that we know the Oculus Rift will cost $600 and require a fairly
high-end PC to get the most out of it, Alienware founder Frank Azor has
revealed that his company will bundle the VR headset with an Alienware
X51 gaming desktop – saving people money on the device.

Learn how to ace the AWS Certification Exams
Amazon
Cloud Services are becoming an industry standard - so be the guy who
knows it all with this complete novice-to-pro AWS Engineer Certification
bundle, now just $29 in the TechSpot Store.

Skreens lets you send all of your media feeds to one TV and display them simultaneously
Not
all of the innovative new devices at CES come from huge tech companies.
Skreens has shown off its recent self-titled gadget that allows you to
connect up to four HDMI devices - such as a console, Blu-ray, PC, Roku,
GoPro, etc. - and output them all simultaneously onto one...

More reports claim iPhone 7 will ditch headphone jack, add waterproofing
In
a move that no consumer really wants, Apple will be ditching the
headphone jack in the upcoming iPhone 7 to make the smartphone thinner,
at least according to a report from Fast Company that corroborates
previous rumors.

Intel gives its tiny Compute Stick a boost with Core M processors
Intel
showcased its tiny Compute Stick at last year's Consumer Electronics
Show. Unbeknownst at the time, the portable HDMI PC would inspire a
whole new category of computers and spawn numerous me-too devices.

T-Mobile CEO John Legere attacks EFF after he lies about BingeOn throttling
T-Mobile
is copping a serious amount of flak over their BingeOn service after
the EFF discovered it simply throttles all video traffic to 1.5 Mbps,
without performing any of the "optimization" it claims to do.

Lenovo to phase out iconic Motorola brand name
One
of the most iconic and recognizable brands both in and outside of the
tech world will soon disappear... at least, as it relates to mobile
devices. During a recent interview at CES, Motorola COO Rick Osterloh
told CNET that they'll be slowly phasing out the Motorola brand.

Nvidia's next game bundle will include Rise of the Tomb Raider
Despite
the last Tomb Raider game being an "AMD Gaming Evolved" title, Nvidia
has received the rights to bundle its sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider,
with their high-end graphics card and notebook products.

Intel's RealSense smartphone developer kit now available to pre-order for $399
Google
launched its Project Tango 3D-sensing tablet last May and now, it's
Intel's turn. After showcasing a prototype of its Project Tango
smartphone at its developer forum last year, the chipmaker at CES
launched a pre-order campaign for those interested in giving the
finalized handset a go.

L'Oreal's new stretchable wearable aims to help fight sunburns
Summer
is my favorite time of year. Few things are more enjoyable than going
for a swim on a nice hot day or cruising around town in a convertible.
Something I do hate, however, is lotion or sprays of any kind which
unfortunately includes sunblock.

Time Warner Cable says data belonging to 320,000 customers may have been compromised
Time Warner Cable has revealed that sensitive data belonging to hundreds of thousands of customers may have been compromised.

Facebook's investment in Messenger pays off as app crosses 800 million user mark
Facebook
invested heavily in its Messenger platform over the course of 2015 and
it has become clear that the time and effort spent has paid off.

Yahoo's problems continue as it reportedly plans to lay off another 10% of its workforce
Yahoo’s
struggles look to be continuing, as reports indicate that company is
planning to cut at least 10 percent of its 10,000-strong workforce as
early as this month, sources told Business Insider.

Psychonauts 2 passes $3 million crowdfunding goal
Eleven
years after the original game was released, Psychonauts 2 has just
reached its funding goal on crowdsourcing platform Fig. The campaign
passed the $3 million target yesterday, which will fund part of the $10
million to $13.5 million developer Double Fine says is needed to create
the game.

Amazon is now a custom ARM chipmaker
Amazon
is now in the hardware business, and I don't mean another phone or
tablet. After acquiring Israeli-based chipmaker Annapurna Labs a year
ago, the e-commerce giant is now selling custom ARM chips.

The
Pixel C is the first tablet to be fully developed in-house by Google.
Not unlike the Chromebook Pixel that runs Chrome OS, with the Pixel line
Google means to show off what's possible to build using their software
platforms even if it's inpractical for most to buy.

RouterPassView 1.62
Most
modern routers allow you to backup the configuration of the router into
a file, and then restore the configuration from the file when it's
needed. This program helps recover that information.Read More ...